For what it’s worth, an ex-Canadian national team coach said Alex Bono was scapegoated for last week’s Champions League loss to Chivas.

He mentioned it out of the blue, adding Alan Pulido’s free kick, Chivas’ game-winning free kick, was special rather than the result of an egregious error.

Could Bono have reached it? Maybe on another night.

That wasn’t his point.

Regardless, Bono held up his hand post-game and accepted responsibility for a loss that ultimately saw the Reds fall in heartbreaking fashion in Guadalajara.

Our selective memory recalls goalkeeper errors more than their important saves.

They’re first to receive criticism and the last to receive praise.

Toronto FC’s 24-year-old netminder has been at the centre of everything in 2018, making unbelievable stops throughout the club’s Champions League run before conceding that goal against Chivas and failing to come up big in penalty kicks.

Then came Saturday at BMO Field.

How would the Reds respond following a hugely disappointing defeat? How would Bono respond with Chicago in town?

Even before he stoned Bastian Schweinsteiger’s first-half penalty, Bono’s point-blank save on Elliot Collier kept the Reds comfortably in front at halftime.

His save on Alan Gordon before Gordon’s eventual equalizer kept Toronto FC in front for the time being.

Most of that was forgotten after the full-time whistle. That’s typical.

“Sometimes you’re the hero. Sometimes you’re closer to the zero,” Bono told the Toronto Sun post-game. “Everything can’t be sunshine and roses all the time.”

Previous Toronto FC goalkeepers weren’t given the same leash. They didn’t earn it.

Ex-TFC ‘keeper Joe Bendik didn’t build the same equity with fans. He was essentially run out of town.

But confidence in Bono didn’t waver post-Champions League – perhaps because he didn’t show signs of faltering confidence within himself.

Yet few will give him credit for being the best player on the pitch this weekend. Not after a disappointing draw.

“You do hope fans are knowledgeable enough and they see that everyone is going to make mistakes no matter who you are, what position you play or what team you’re on,” Bono added. “It’s how you rebound from those mistakes and come back.”

Bono referred to it as “the life of a goalkeeper.”

It sounds thankless, quite frankly.

He’s expected to make stops – even the difficult ones – in a game where goals and assists trump clean sheets. Save percentage isn’t a stat anyone cares about.

“I think Alex made one mistake in CONCACAF,” coach Greg Vanney said post-game. “Other than that I think he’s been very good, he’s been big in moments where we needed him to be big and I think no different today.

“He’s matured a ton over these last few years and he understands how to put a mistake behind him.”

Bono’s evolution, his growth, has been about more than balancing brilliance with blunder. He’s a leader on a team of leaders.

It would be easy for him to sit back, avoid reporters and allow his captain to talk. Yet he didn’t. He took responsibility for the Chivas loss while deflecting criticism away from Marky Delgado last week.

Following Delgado’s equally massive blunder in Guadalajara, Bono had little time for anyone trying to pin defeat on the young Toronto FC midfielder.

“We don’t put losses on one individual,” Bono said post-game at Estadio Akron.

It was an impressive response from a player who just a week before was facing similar criticism. It would have been easy for Bono to allow the press to prey on someone else.

“As a collective group we win together and lose together,” Bono told the Sun following Saturday’s draw. “That’s just our camaraderie as a group. We stick together.

“No matter what happens we’re going to be together,” he finished.

SOMETHING OFF ABOUT GOAL

The Reds had every right to feel aggrieved.

They probably deserved to win.

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s goal to make it 2-1 midway through the second half should have been reviewed – and likely called off – due to Chicago’s Nemanja Nikolic making a play on the ball (prior to the goal) while occupying an offside position.

“The referee doesn’t take the time to review it and make a decision on his own and it’s a goal,” TFC coach Greg Vanney said.

Vanney also lamented the fact referee Alan Kelly took the time to review – and call off – Sebastian Giovinco’s first-half goal.

“As I look back at it he’s offside,” Vanney said of Schweinsteiger’s goal. “That is the first goal and it leads to momentum shift as now they’re back to 2-1 and therein lies the game being about chances and goals and not the run of play.”

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